ENDICOTT, N.Y. — A Nevada firm has awarded BAE Systems a contract to supply the flight-control system for its new AS2 supersonic business jet.
BAE Systems will design, develop, and integrate a fly-by-wire flight-control system, including active inceptors, for the new aircraft for Reno, Nevada–based Aerion Supersonic.
“We are leveraging decades of expertise and advanced technologies to architect a flight control system that will enable the future of flight,” Ehtisham Siddiqui, VP and general manager of controls and avionics solutions at BAE Systems, said in a release.
The flight-control system will be developed at a BAE Systems facility in Endicott and one in the United Kingdom.
Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, BAE Systems, Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of UK–based BAE Systems plc, a global defense, security, and aerospace company. Its website says the firm employs nearly 86,000 globally. That figure includes more than 1,300 employees in Endicott, per a company spokesman.
The firm contends the new flight-control system adds to BAE Systems’ “more than 40 years of experience developing and integrating” fly-by-wire systems. The system builds on the company’s core technology but uses smaller and lighter components to allow for integration on the AS2 aircraft.
The system will include active inceptors, primary flight-control computers, actuator control units, and remote electronics units.
Aerion’s AS2 private jet is “the first supersonic aircraft to use only synthetic fuel and reach supersonic speeds without the need for an afterburner,” per the BAE Systems release.
The business jet will enhance point-to-point travel with a maximum speed of Mach 1.4 — about 1,000 miles per hour — at 57,000 feet. The AS2 will commence production from the company’s new global headquarters and manufacturing and research campus — Aerion Park — in Melbourne, Florida, in 2023.